The demands imposed on internal combustion engines, in particular in motor vehicles, are increasing as a result of statutory provisions governing exhaust emissions and on account of customer requirements relating to reliability, efficient use of resources, in particular fuel, and low maintenance costs. These requirements can only be met if malfunctions of vehicle components are reliably and accurately detected and logged so that malfunctions can be neutralized or a repair of the faulty vehicle components can be initiated. Toward that end, vehicle components, in particular all vehicle components relevant to exhaust gases, such as, for example, a catalytic converter system, a lambda probe, a fuel system and a cooling system, are monitored. For motor vehicles starting with the 2006 model year for the US American market, the regulations stipulate in particular that temperature values of a coolant temperature sensor should be monitored to check that they remain within a predefined temperature range, since raw emissions of the internal combustion engine, that is to say emissions that have not undergone an exhaust gas after treatment, may be increased due to incorrect temperature values of the coolant temperature sensor. The monitoring measures are intended to ensure low-emission operation and maintain driving safety. Also part of these measures is that when faults occur an emergency running of the internal combustion engine is ensured and consequential damage can be avoided. If necessary the driver of the motor vehicle is alerted to the malfunction so that he/she can initiate an inspection and/or repair in a workshop. A control device of the internal combustion engine stores information about the faults that have occurred, such as, for example, a fault type, a fault location and where applicable the operating conditions under which the malfunction occurred. This information can be evaluated in a workshop and so assist the repair work.